How much is car insurance in Mexico?

I’m an insurance professional & have passed all the requirements & exams to be licensed in CA, WA, AZ, & the entire country of Mexico. In the past, Mexican law did not require you to carry liability insurance, they only required you to be Financially responsible in the event that you caused bodily injury or property damage to a third-party. A new law as of January 2019, requires that all vehicles on Federal highways must carry liability insurance. Most foreign visitors & Expats in Mexico are prudent enough to insure their vehicles while driving in Mexico already, & it has been the Mexican drivers themselves that have not been so concerned about carrying insurance, so this new law is a total game changer.

Contact me for all types of insurance options but if you loan your US or Canadian vehicle to another NON-MEXICAN licensed person and they have an accident, yes, as long as they are driving with your permission & over 21 (unless you have added coverage for minors to your policy), they are covered. But what if you were renting them a property and include your vehicle? Make your rental agreement very specific that they are paying to rent your property, and you are LOANING them in your vehicle at no charge! If they tell the police investigating the accident that they have rented your vehicle, that makes that vehicle business use and your personal insurance policy does not pay! Or if you are elsewhere, YOU will still have to handle the claims process! Have them get their own DRIVERS LICENSE liability insurance policy from me or from any agent, but protect yourself!

Posted January 07, 2019

Need great, usable research about moving to Mexico? Get these FREE!

eBook describing the year-long Mexico road trip of a typical, newbie couple and their two dogs, “Our Year on the Road & Living in Mexico—Adventures, Challenges, Triumphs, Lessons Learned.”

Research study of over 1,100 Mexico expats, “Expats in Mexico—Expectations, Worries… and How It All Turned Out.”

Our newsletter, containing fresh, realistic answers and stories about living in Mexico—without the spin.

Although many variables determine insurance premium in Mexico, insurance costs as a whole are significantly lower that assessed in the U.S. for comparable vehicles. Mexico and many states now require minimum levels of liability insurance coverage. Multiple online resources are available to provide a quote.

Car insurance is Mexico costs about $100 or less a month. Our car insurance costs less because we have an older car. We pay $75 a month, maybe less, and that’s for full comprehensive coverage. Car insurance in Mexico is the same no-fault insurance as in Canada. The same car in Canada would cost double to put plates on and insure.

Car insurance in Mexico has gone up recently because the coverage for accidents and for personal injury has gone up to about 3 million pesos (about US $160,000). Sometimes the cost of car insurance depends on the car. Personally speaking, we only have six cars! We have cars for our employees, my wife and I each have a car, and we have a spare car. Most of our cars are worth in the US $3,000 to $5,000 range and the insurance costs about $300 per year each. My car is a $16,000 model year 2014 car and in 2016, insurance for it costs $600 per year.

The last accident I had on the road was when I was at the stoplight in front of Soriana in Chapala and there were a couple of young guys in an old pick-up who hit the back of my car. I got out and looked at the trunk of my car, lifted it up and shut it and saw that it was okay, though there was a part that was bent. Their radiator has been punctured and the water was all over the road but the whole front of the truck was smashed in because it was so old. They were standing on the curb of the road frantically trying to call their father. I had appointments and I knew that if I had to wait for the police and for the insurance, it would be there for 3 to 4 hours so I said, “I’m fine,” and I went on my way.

(Home on two acres with covered parking for four cars 15 minutes outside of Lake Chapala, Mexico, pictured.)

For a Mexican-plated vehicle, the cost of car insurance varies depending on the state in which you’re located, the value of the vehicle, and the type of coverage that you want.

For example, for a regular coverage policy, in the Puerto Vallarta area, for a Mexican plated vehicle, insurance costs between 3,000 pesos (US $170) and 9,000 pesos (US $500) a year. That’s the average. That’s not really bad at all. The snowbirds that come down here for only 6 months out of the year pay for their car insurance on a semi-annual basis and the ones who stay here for only 3 months usually get it on a quarterly basis.

To obtain the amount of a car insurance premium, we get the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) and once we put that in, the computer calculates the value of the vehicle. If the value of the vehicle is 250,000 pesos (US $14,000), insurance would be around 8,000 to 9,000 pesos (US $450 to US $500) a year. If the value of the car is around 65,000 pesos (US $3,500) then the premium drops to around 2,000 pesos ($120) a year.

In Mexico, you’re insuring the vehicle and not the driver. So as long as the vehicle is insured, the person driving it is of driving age, and not drunk or anything like that, they have coverage. Anyone can drive your vehicle as long as they’re of driving age. The liability comes included in the full policy. It’s pretty similar to the US. You get material damages to your own vehicle, theft to you your own vehicle, and third party liability, which will cover you from damages done to other property or injuries caused to other people. That coverage, at the least, is required by Mexican law even though a lot of people down here don’t drive with that, it is required to at least have liability.

The amount of liability coverage required varies by state. For for Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, and Nayarit, you usually get between 3 million pesos (US $170,000) and 4 million pesos (US $225,000) in liability. Roadside assistance, legal assistance, medical expenses for the driver and the occupants of the vehicle all come included in standard and full coverage policies.

A lot of people ask about Uninsured Motorist Coverage. The way it works down here in Mexico is that if someone hits you and they have insurance, their insurance will cover it. If someone hits you and they didn’t have insurance, then your insurance would jump in and cover it but you would just have to pay the deductible, which is a standard of 5% of the total vehicle value for material damages. There is an option that you could add on to your policy for an extra cost that would eliminate the deductible in those types of situations so you don’t have to pay anything. But there really is nothing considered “Uninsured Motorist Coverage” down here because your insurance will cover you if the person that hits you doesn’t have insurance. Let’s say someone hits you and they were not insured, and you have to go to the hospital. In this case, your insurance will jump in and cover you under the medical expenses for the driver or occupants of the vehicle.

We also have policies for vehicles that are not Mexican-plated. Instead of using the VIN, all we need to get is the vehicle value from the person. As long as the value of the vehicle is not excessively overstated, whatever they are comfortable getting reimbursed for is the amount that we put in the event that the vehicle was stolen or declared a total loss in a collision. That will determine the premium of the policy as well. The annual premium for a US-plated cars is between US $200 and $500, depending on the cost of the vehicle.

We can provide you with car insurance for a set amount of days. A lot of times, a 6-month policy is cheaper than getting it for 2 weeks or 2 months. We also have to make sure that if you are driving in Mexico with a foreign-plated vehicle, you have to bring your foreign driver’s license as well. The average premium for a Mexican-plated vehicle is 6,000 pesos (US $340) and the average premium for a US-plated vehicle is $300, so the price is pretty similar.

Car insurance for basic liability (no collision coverage) in Mexico is only about US $40 to $50 per month. If you want to protect yourself with full coverage, it would cost around $100 to $120 per month, depending on what car you have.

I personally do not have insurance on my cars. In Mexico, one is not obligated by law to have car insurance so most people do not have it. In Mexico there are old cars so people just take the risk.

I was a fender bender a couple of months ago. When something like this happens, the way you solve that kind of situation in Mexico is right on the spot. If the guilty driver doesn’t have car insurance, he would come up with a certain amount to fix the damage. Collision repairs are cheaper in Mexico. It is nothing like in the States. If a bumper is completely cracked because of a crash but there is no major damage to the car, you can fix it for less than $100. That is why people tend not to have insurance because usually it is cheaper to pay those repairs when they happen than to pay every month on insurance.

With regard to liability, Mexicans are typically not worried about the fact that the other person can sue them for a large amount of money if they are at fault in a car accident. Personally, I am not worried because it is our culture as Mexicans to be good drivers so it doesn’t really cross my mind. If an expat in Mexico is on the concerned side, then $40 to $50 per month should handle the liability part.

Click here/questions-and-answers?view=answers&task=verify_captchaSubmit AnswerCancelYesMoveNoError!ConfirmThe operation is successful.Click hereWhat do you want to ask?/questions-and-answers?view=answers&task=subscribe_qn&id=3147/questions-and-answers?view=answers&task=unsubscribe_qn&id=3147You have subscribed to this question.You have unsubscribed to this question./questions-and-answers?view=answers&task=get_answerReport ThisSubmitMoveMove to another questionAssignAssign to another userInformation!Reason:

Our Pledge To You

Best Places will present information from the Community in a transparent way, unedited, except to conform with our Conditions of Use.

You can trust that Best Places does not manipulate content to sell you anything. All opinions in the Community Q & A and Expat Stories are those of its authors, not Best Places.

Get Known To The Community

Those who contribute to the Best Places Community are our heroes! And being a Best Places hero is fast, fun, and easy. Just go to Questions & Answers, find your first question to answer, click on it, and then click the Contribute Your Answer To This Question Button. If you’d rather enter a Story, go to Expat Stories and click the Contribute Your Story Button".

In order for Best Places to notify you when there’s a new answer to this question, we need to know your e-mail address, so please log in or create an account. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s free.

Thank you so much for offering to contribute a Story, which will be seen and shared with literally hundreds of thousands of people thinking about retiring abroad. In order to contribute, the community would like to know who you are. To tell us, please log in or create your new account. (Visitors cannot answer questions or post stories.)

Thank you for asking your question and helping others just like you who may have wanted to know the same thing. Please either log in or create an account so we can notify you when your question is answered. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s free.

To get notifications, we’ll have to know where to send the e-mail. Please either log in, or, if you don’t already have an account, please create one.

In order for Best Places to notify you any time there’s a new Story, we need to know your e-mail address, so please log in or create an account. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s free.

In order for Best Places to notify you any time there’s a new Story by this Storyteller, we need to know your e-mail address, so please log in or create an account. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s free.

In order for us to let you know when your question or comment has been responded to, please let us know who you are, either by logging in to your existing account, or creating an account for yourself.

Thank you for voting. Your votes help others in the Best Places Community know which answers are best. In order to vote, please log in or create an account.

Thank you for being a Best Places Contributor. Your answers will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people thinking about retiring overseas. Please log in or create an account, so Best Places can know who you are, and if you like, we can give you public credit. After you’re logged in, just go to the question and click the Contribute Your Answer To This Question Button. (Visitors cannot answer questions or post stories.)

In order for Best Places to notify you any time there’s a new Story in this category, we need to know your e-mail address, so please log in or create an account. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s free.

In order for Best Places to notify you when there’s a new answer to all questions in this category, we need to know your e-mail address, so please log in or create an account. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s free.

In order for Best Places to notify you when there’s a new answer to all questions, we need to know your e-mail address, so please log in or create an account. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s free.

If you already have a user account, you already receive notification. If you don't have a user account, you can create a new account (so you can participate on the site), or, you can just sign up for the newsletter only.